South Padre Island Real Estate - Alice Donahue

Investment Opportunities

South Padre Aerial of the North-end Land Tracts showing the condition of the beach and bay over a year and a half after Hurricane Dolly

There are some great deals and motivated sellers for South Padre Island's north-end land tracts. With the planned bridge connecting to the north-end and utilities available to tract 14, there is a renewed interest in the land for development. The strongest interest is coming from potential buyers in Mexico.

Here is an aerial video of the land tracts we took in February 2010

Contact us if you are interested in more detailed photography of a particular tract or would like to get a market analysis of the land values and motivated seller options.

Also see South Padre 2nd Bridge Update and More Good News

Comments

By Mike Stuart @ Saturday, February 13, 2010 9:05 AM

We need a new movement with local government support: "MOVE BACK THE ROAD"

To attract and have effective development of the North-end, we need to move Hwy 100 back to the Padre Blvd line - like it is in the Town of South Padre, so we can have more beachfront lots and also allow for setbacks large enough (further away from the beach) to avoid problems with erosion, storm surge damage, and issues with insurance & the Texas GLO.

Moving the road back would be more valuable and feasible for the Government to accomplish than a second bridge. And once new communities were being developed - the 2nd bridge would get a real shot of actually getting done anyway.

The wide - gradual sloping muddy-marshy & often stinky bay side will be difficult to develop and with the road pushed back, it would be easier to just make lakes buffer new developments - or just leave the bay side as-is where the smell is not too bad.

Having a perfect bay side, like we see at The Shores, where they carved Islands and bulk-headed it all, is something that is unlikely for reasons of costs and environmental approvals. That makes The Shores the only realistic new bay side community development for quite some time, and with all the lots they have planned, it may be all we need as well.

By Island Fred @ Saturday, February 13, 2010 9:23 AM

The Mexicans are parking their Pesos in SPI land for appreciation and safety given the issues they are having with lower oil production, fighting crime and political risks.

By Jennifer @ Tuesday, February 16, 2010 8:02 PM

Those are beautiful pictures. When looking at them, my first thought is to suggest that the whole area should be preserved as is, for future generations to enjoy. Keeping that area off-limits to developers would also raise the value of properties to the south, something that would be good for existing property owners.

I do agree that the highway is too close to the beach for any serious beach-side development, but I don't see how you can move it any further back without some serious engineering challenges. And who would pay the billion dollars for a project like that? If I was going to put a highway heading north, its present location is exactly where I would put it.

I don't think the new bridge idea has any chance of happening anytime soon. Remember all the bad publicity surrounding the now famous "Bridge to Nowhere" project in Alaska? Governor Perry just asked all state departments to submit serious proposals for 5% budget cutbacks. A lot of people are screaming about cutbacks in mental health services, reduced money for state colleges, etc. Clearly there is no extra money for bridge building or road moving.

I thought the original motivation behind that new bridge was to increase access to the island, and to give us an extra hurricane evacuation route. Spending the money moving the highway won't help us get off the island any faster the next time a hurricane comes along.

I also heard one of the motivations behind the new bridge was that the old bridge only had a few decades of life left in it, with the exact life dependent upon the amount of maintenance it receives. If the state has ANY extra pocket change, keeping that old bridge healthy should be the #1 priority. Can you imagine how much life on the island would change if they built a new bridge on the north side of town, and let the old causeway decay away like the original bridge? Port Isabel would cease to exist! Seriously, our number one priority right now should be to better maintain the existing causeway so that it can provide many more decades of service.

OK, so by now you can tell I'm not a hungry realtor, right? Well, I'm still thinking of you guys and how you can make money with those north tracts.....

Perhaps that smelly marsh land should be sold as-is, leaving it to the developers to build it up, and deal with all the environmental issues. The opportunities for expanding the island are limitless. As an extreme example, look at what they did in Dubai:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Islands

Here is a modification of the above idea: At the point where the new bridge intersects the island, you build a new 300 foot wide jetty that goes one mile straight out into the gulf, turns right, and then heads all the way back to the ship channel. You could make the new "breakwater" wide enough to support housing/condo development on both sides of the breakwater, with a good access road running right through the middle of it. That valuable new property would give the developers incentive to fund the new "island extension", "jetty", or whatever you want to call it. In the end island residents would enjoy a huge bay, about a mile wide and ten miles long - trapping valuable sand, and helping to protect the island from tropical weather. It also wouldn't interfere with existing beachfront property owners (except their view), and may actually help naturally rebuild the beach we already have. Another excuse for the "breakwater development" would be to house the windmill farm that they're already talking about building a few miles offshore.

It's a wild idea, but since it is all off-shore development, the whole thing could be built as fast/slow as the current economy dictates. If it takes 50 years to build it all out, that's just fine. All we need to do now is plan for it. I think the bottom line is that if we're going to get any new developable property for the hungry realtors on this island to sell, we're going to have to reclaim that new property directly from the gulf.

By Sun Tanned @ Monday, April 05, 2010 9:54 AM

Report on dune preservation efforts by the Texas General Land Office on the north side of South Padre:

http://www.plant-materials.nrcs.usda.gov/pubs/stpmcpr7852.pdf

By beach investor @ Sunday, May 09, 2010 9:44 PM

I'm curious about the suffix to this article, "... a year after hurricane Dolly". Can we assume that Dolly did some serious damage to those north beach tracts? Got any "before" and "after" pics to compare?

By Beach Driver @ Wednesday, July 07, 2010 11:44 PM

On the surface, buying a north tract on south padre sounds like an exotic investment. You buy the property dirt cheap, wait for the town to come to you, and eventually get extremely rich, right?

However, there is some significant risk involved, and you can't ignore it. Below is a fascinating photo essay regarding what happened to one neglected beach front highway in Texas. When I saw this I wondered if South Padre's own Hwy 100 running thru the north tracts will eventually suffer a similar fate. Let's face it, the beach is eroding, the island is periodically subject to some nasty tropical weather, and the state currently has little extra money to maintain roads that go nowhere.

http://www.texasfreeway.com/statewide/Statewide/abandoned/TX87_closed/87_eroded.shtml

Think I'm exaggerating? Even a popular Texas coastal highway THAT ACTUALLY GOES SOMEWHERE is having serious difficulty these days:

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=7542745

By illegal alien @ Tuesday, August 31, 2010 10:54 AM

for all of you that have posted a privious comment on this page. i have some good news. the 2nd causeway is on its way. and will prob land around or near beach access 6. i hope this will stop all of the enviormentalist and speculators of what should be goin on the north end from what really is happening now. enjoy the ride.

By official gringo @ Wednesday, September 01, 2010 7:00 AM

Hey, "illegal alien". From what I read, both the state and federal government are is in serious financial trouble, with the state even making drastic cuts to important existing services, including social services that impact children. So if you don't mind me asking, please provide a link or other verifiable evidence to support your contention that the proposed bridge project is actually going forward anytime soon. (Not another study, public meeting, or something fluffy like that, but real concrete evidence that construction contractors are getting ready.) Personally, I find that hard to believe, but if you have evidence please share it with all of us. That would certainly be an exciting development that I would have expected to have read about in the local papers.

By Illegal Alien @ Thursday, September 02, 2010 8:27 PM

Your right “Official Gringo”. The whole country is trying to recover from the recession or near melt down. Texas unlike other states like Michigan, California, Illinois etc. is not in that bad of shape. First of all funding for the second access project to South Padre Island will most likely come from State, Federal, and foreign investors. A large percentage of the information put out about the new causeway thus far has been a smoke screen for various reasons. Example, all the unpractical landing points on the south end of the island. I am not at liberty to tell you everything I know about infrastructural evolution or what the big dogs are going to announce in the coming months. I do know this project will bring thousands of various jobs , create property tax money, and development to the valley and the GREAT state of Texas, so we can fund existing services and other social programs, schools, and programs for children that we care so much about.

P.s. - ill take you for that ride in my chebie.

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